Our next company that’s doing good is one that many of us are probably very familiar with – the Molson-Coors Brewing Company. “A beer company,” you say? Yes – a beer company. We appreciate and recognize companies that are doing good not just for themselves, but for the earth and others.

Molson-Coors Brewing Company is proving itself to be a leader in the environmental stewardship movement by embracing the fact that without a healthy environment, there’s no Molson-Coors Brewing Company. Bart Alexander, Chief of Corporate Responsibility at Molson-Coors, says they’re doing everything they can to minimize the “beer print” their company leaves on the planet. He explains what “beer print” means in the following way:

“So we came up with a new way of talking about sustainability that we call our beer print. Every time you pick up a beer and put it down you leave and little mark on the coaster or on the table, and that’s a beer print. And just like that our company puts a mark on communities where we work, our people, and on the earth … our agenda is to grow our positive beer print — the good things that result from our business — the sociability and joy we bring to a lot people in making our product, economic impacts we have on communities where we do business, the positive contributions we have in our communities. We want to grow our positive beer print and shrink our negative beer print. We want to shrink things like accidents for our people, pollution, and alcohol abuse.”

Seems good, right? How are they doing so far? Well, for starters, they were named the “Beverage Industry Sector Leader” on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. They understand that their entire line of product is reliant on having readily available, clean water to make beer with. Their target goal is to reduce water usage by 15% by the year 2020, saving millions of gallons of water from being consumed, and saving themselves loads of production dollars in the process. Between 2010 and 2012 alone, they saved an estimated $10 million per year due to lower use of energy and water, reduced waste fees and taxes. Their goals through 2020 will save them an additional $16 million every year. Good for the company, good for the environment.

Here are some additional stats for their environmental performance to date:

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions: Achieved a 24 percent reduction in carbon emissions intensity since 2008 (equivalent to a 25 percent reduction in absolute carbon emissions). The company surpassed its 2012 target in 2010 as a result of focused efforts to invest in GHG reduction, energy efficiency and process improvements.

Waste: Accomplished zero waste to landfill in their UK-based operations by the end of 2012. Between 2008 and 2012 its UK operations diverted 5,697 tonnes of waste away from landfill and avoided $500,000 in landfill taxes. The company missed its global landfill-diversion target, sending 1.9 percent more waste to landfill in 2012 than in 2011. This was a stretch target and Molson Coors will continue to challenge its operations in this area through the development of a long-term global waste strategy.

Water: At year-end 2012, water intensity was seven percent lower than in 2008. Since 2008, the company reduced total water consumption by over 12.6 million hectoliters, equivalent to 504 Olympic swimming pools. Lower than expected volumes made it difficult to reduce water intensity and caused the company to fall short of its 2012 target of 15 percent reduction.

Energy: The company’s 2012 energy intensity was 11 percent lower than in 2008. Since 2008, the company reduced total energy consumption by over 370 million megajoules. Lower than expected volumes made it difficult to reduce energy intensity and Molson Coors did not meet the 2012 energy reduction target of 15 percent.

Packaging: Set a new global goal to reduce packaging weight by four percent by 2015 from a 2012 baseline.

And there’s still 6 more years of improvement to go. That’s impressive. Thank you Molson-Coors for the impact you’ve decided to make on the environment, and for the great beers you continue to produce. Here’s to you, a company that’s doing good!

Congratulations to Molson-Coors and thank you for bringing this wonderful achievement to our attention, Chris.

I'm curious what our community members' businesses are doing to less of an imprint on our environment. Won't you all take a few minutes and share with us? Even the smallest efforts are to be commended. After all if we do nothing, we are adding to the pollution and other environmental problems we, as humans, have created.

So share - big or small successes - we are interested. You never know, your success may be the nudge that another business says: sure, we can do that!

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